Marianne Merten
‘Traditions of Tomorrow” is the theme of a three-week textile workshop in Cape Town for artists from across Africa, held by internationally renowned contemporary textile artist Sheila Hicks.
“We know all the obvious iconography representing Africa. Guess what? We are going to blow your mind with new visions and these new visions come from within,” said the Paris-based American Hicks. “Textile language is universal and crosses all frontiers.”
Twenty-eight delegates from 12 African countries, including war-torn Sierra Leone, Ghana, flood-ravaged Mozambique, Mauritius, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa are working with textile, design and fashion specialists from Japan, Jamaica, France, Mexico and the United States to exchange inspiration, learn new techniques, discuss preserving traditional designs and teach each other.
“The whole thing is to shake hands, meet halfway and take it from there,” Hicks said.
Visits to Cape Town craft markets, museums and historic sites are part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation- funded workshop.
The workshop was launched at the Manufacturing and Design Academy of South Africa (Madesa) in the historic Old Granary building. Academy education director Fairuz Mullagee explained this cultural exchange was the first step towards establishing a design movement across Africa.
“South Africa has been isolated from the rest of Africa – and Cape Town more so than other parts of the country,” she said. “It’s reconnecting with the continent.”
It took more than a year to organise the workshop. And a French-South African co- production is shooting a documentary on the workshop with plans to follow some of the delegates home.
According to Madesa, crafts are not just an artistic expression but also a means to ensure a livelihood.
“There’s lots of skill and talent, but it isn’t appropriately channelled,” Mullagee said. “The craft industry is very lucrative, but highly exploited. We want to ensure that crafters have greater control over the market chain.”
The academy offers studio space, business management courses and ongoing creative advice to artists over a six- month period. Craft workers are encouraged to pool resources, skills and experience to work together to add value to products.
Several of the first, hand-picked intake, like woodcarver Shepherd Mbanya, who lives in a shack in Nyanga, are now supplying carved door panels, bathroom tiles and beaded wire lampshades for Madesa’s first commercial contract with the Arabella Sheraton Hotel, under construction in Hermanus.
An exhibition of works produced in the workshop also marks the launch of a crafts market at the Old Granary.